A Cheat Sheet for Krita on Android Tablets (Part 3)
Part 1: Touch Interface Notes
Part 2: Simplifying the Interface for a Tablet
The default brushes have some really nice sets, and are very easy to tune to your hand and feel via the Brush Editor settings. I was delighted to find that many of the basic brushes can be switched from a round to square head (Brush Editor-> Brush Tip -> Shape -> Square). Most other drawing programs, I have to make my own square head tip, and edit it in!
A particular shout-out to the watercolour brushes, which are some of the more natural feeling digital watercolours I’ve used not backed by a fluid dynamics system (and the sad trade-off with fluid dynamic systems is that they make my computers run like a potato). Krita’s default watercolour set run pretty well even with the larger brushes (I've been generally working on 300dpi files).
I also really like the Sketching Chrome Pen (under the default Ink set), which feels like pleasantly goopy ink/biro or a dry felt tip depending on how fast or what angle you draw with it, very fun to noodle around with.
However, if you want more brushes, here are some more commonly recommended ones and my impressions:
Concept Art and Illustration v2 by Pyteo
A good set for people coming from Photoshop, clean and focused for digital art. They run light and easy. Also a good pack if you find the default brush icons in Krita a bit distracting as interface elements – this set’s icons are plain grey and white, and blend in much better if you have the Brush Presets Docker always showing.
From Ramon Miranda, who created a lot (maybe all?) of the default brushes in Krita (and has many helpful Youtube videos for the official Krita channel):
CharcoalKA
Sketch v2
Ink Brushes for Inktober
RGBA-Wet (Brushes in video’s description)
His sets look very much like real media - I like the charcoal ones in particular. Fascinating to see images on the Krita forums of him using real media to make them too.
I mainly use the first brush of this set to be honest, but it feels amazingly like blending real paint. The others can look a bit too much like what they're built on – a render from Blender – when applied at full strength, but provide ample scope for textural interest if you can blend them back a bit. Not a diss to this creator’s work – it seems inherently very difficult to avoid that computer rendered look when in the end, it is a computer rendering it. I don’t think even Rebelle or Adobe Fresco always avoid it, and the focus of those programs is a lot more on getting that analogue media look. I'd say I enjoy painting with this set as a digital acrylics/oils in Krita about just as much.
I saw this one get recommended a lot as a beginner set on reddit, but I think of it more as a fun set to play with when you maybe need some inspiration, and are tired of your usual workhorse brushes. There are a lot of unique quirky brushes in it, that I think won’t necessarily enter everyday use for me, but have some cool effects – I really like the rainbow and liquid smeary brushes. I mainly don’t recommend it as a starter set because some of the brushes do run a little heavier; the orange tipped bristle ones in particular made my tablet lag.
Some noodling with the Sketching Chrome Pen (Pear 1 & 2), the watercolour brushes (Pear 3) and Memileo Impasto Brush (Pear 4)
